“As the composer recalled at an 81st birthday celebration held at the Library of Congress,” reports NPR, “on the same tiny stage where ‘Appalachian Spring’ premiered in 1944…’I was really putting Martha Graham to music. I had seen her dancing so many times, and I had a sense of her personality as a creative office. I had — really in front of my mind I wasn’t thinking about the Appalachians or even spring. So that I had no title for it. It was a ballet for Martha, was actually the subtitle that I had.’
By the time he received the $500 commission to create his ballet for Martha Graham, Aaron Copland was one of America’s most important composers. Throughout the 1920s and early ’30s, he created work in a modernist style, music that was prickly and angular, frequently utilizing elements of jazz. But by the early ’40s, he moved towards a more populist style, with such pieces as ‘Fanfare for the Common Man,’ ‘Lincoln Portrait’ and ‘Rodeo.'”
In an interview with the BBC, Copland said he made use of folk music was because it was free. “The principal attraction for me in a folk song was that it was an easy way to sound American.” The piece premiered in October 1944. The Graham company toured with the ballet; on 1945’s V-E Day, Copland won a Pulitzer Prize for the work.
Beginning in A major, movement 2 of “Appalachian Spring” transitions to C major at 0:26, but reverts to A major at 0:48. By 1:28, F major is in play, and not for the last time — and the movement touches on other keys as well.
Here’s the entire piece, conducted by the composer in 1980:
modulationoftheday.home.blog 